5 customer experience stories you shouldn’t miss this week

In this week’s round-up of the latest in customer experience news, we take you on a trip to China, get some insight from travel agents, take a deep dive into how technology can enhance our working lives and more.

Building the customer case for customer experience in China

EConsultancy’s writers have recently embarked on a customer experience world tour. It’s less Around the World in 80 Days, and more Around the World in A Few Dozen Roundtables. Their takeaways from their China roundtable gives some insight into the state of play in one of the world’s strongest economies. China; where consumers have high expectations, social media has reached saturation point (not that MNCs understand Chinese social media), consumer data is difficult to access and email is king. Read more in the article here.

Old-school customer service rules, say travel agents

UK travel agents attested to the power of the personal touch at a recent conference. Their worries are that, “with technology, personal service doesn’t exist any more.” Read the article here.

Of course, the ability to deliver a truly personalized digital customer experience is only limited if you’re using the wrong technology. Read more about the importance of personalization, and the tech that enables you to do so effectively, on our blog.

Technology is changing how we live, but it needs to change how we work

There’s a really interesting article on Vox about how the growth of ‘total factor productivity,’ or TFP, has been slowing in the US since the 1970s. This essentially means that people are poorer, working longer hours and generally not doing so well in life. Which, with all of the technology available to us, really shouldn’t be the case. It’s quite a long read, but a good one. Catch it here.

Man versus machine – the self-service customer service revolution

Although the headline might suggest otherwise, Forbes aren’t decrying online self-service as a bad thing. The article goes over how automation, FAQs and virtual agents are helping to improve the customer experience. “At least into the foreseeable future, it won’t be a definitive choice between man and machine. It will be a combination of the two that creates the best customer experience.” Read more.

Mobile carrier introduces discounts for ads

It’s worth keeping an eye on how the recent deal between Tesco Mobile and Rupert Murdoch-backed ad-serving platform Unlockd develops. Tesco are offering their customers a £3 (roughly €4, or $4.30) discount, and 200mb extra data, if they view an “advert, offer or piece of content” on at least 21 days per calendar month. Is the discount enough of an incentive for the scheme to work? Read the article on ArsTechnica.